Hi All - I am completely at the end of my rope with my 6.5 month old. I feel like sleep is getting worse, not better and I'm in tears. We have several problems, and I'm not even sure where to start.
1. I have never been able to get on a true EASY with her. She does NOT want to eat when she first gets up, so I feel like our EASY is not achievable right from the start.
2. I can't seem to get her to fall asleep without nursing her. Every once in awhile I can make it happen, but 9 times out of 10 she nurses to sleep. She will not take a pacifier and also will not suck her fingers.
3. She either wakes up at 4 or 5 to start her day, or will wake up in the middle of the night for 1 - 2 hours. I nurse her, but then she will not go back to sleep. To make matters worse, she SCREECHES the ENTIRE TIME. She's not screaming, but screeching. It sounds like we have a baby dinosaur in our house.
4. Because I have a 3.5 year old, our days can be somewhat inconsistent. He goes to school 2 mornings a week, plus I have to do the shopping, etc. I also don't feel like we can stay home everyday without things for him to do. I do try and get her first nap of the day at home and her mid-day nap at home. It is not like when I had my son; however, and I could try to always be home for naps.
Since We have a 3.5 year old, it is how I got into the habit of nursing to sleep. It was just so much quicker, and I didn't have to leave him alone as long. I'm the only one who tries to get her to nap sleep including at night. I'm truly, truly at my wits end and even willing to hire a sleep trainer to help. Does anyone have advice???
Here are some sample days:
5:00 - awake
5:25 - nurse
5:40 - pd awake
6:00 - got up for day
7:30 - nurse / asleep
8:25 - awake happy
10:45 - nurse / asleep
12:25 - awake happy
1:30 - eat solids
2:55 - nurse / asleep
3:15 - awake happy
5:00 - eat solids
6:40 - nurse / asleep for night
2:30 - nurse / awake
2:30 - 4:00 - awake and screeching, tried nursing twice, finally asleep at 4
6:45 - awake for day
I have literally spent the last 2 hours trying to get her to take her first nap of the day which means she has been awake for over 3 hours.
Thanks!!!! -Jen